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Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:13 pm

I can see the 2 shows a night in Vegas. Most performers were doing that in the 50's 60's and 70's but 2 shows a day on tour just seems nuts. I can't recall that being the norm for any other performers. Was this a country thing? I saw Johnny Cash at a Saturday afternoon show in the 80's. Don't know if he had an evening show or not but it was weird going to a concert in the afternoon.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:18 am

Mostly a second show was added due to the great demand..

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:18 pm

Elvis' shows were 40 to 60 minutes while other performers did 2 hour shows.So even with 2 shows Elvis worked less than other performers. And got a better pay!

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 2:20 pm

zolderopruiming1 wrote:Elvis' shows were 40 to 60 minutes while other performers did 2 hour shows.So even with 2 shows Elvis worked less than other performers. And got a better pay!

Who was doing 2 hour shows in the 70's (besides Springstein)?

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 2:44 pm

eligain wrote:

zolderopruiming1 wrote:Elvis' shows were 40 to 60 minutes while other performers did 2 hour shows.So even with 2 shows Elvis worked less than other performers. And got a better pay!

Who was doing 2 hour shows in the 70's (besides Springstein)?

Jethro tull for sure. Abba had a 23 track setlist at Wembley arena. 26 tracks at Sydney Opera House in 1977. Their tracks was mostly 3-5 minutes. Must have been ca 2 hours show.

Last edited by dreambear on Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:34 pm

zolderopruiming1 wrote:Elvis' shows were 40 to 60 minutes while other performers did 2 hour shows.So even with 2 shows Elvis worked less than other performers. And got a better pay!

Correct.

Elvis' portion of the show was very short. Given that most acts do two sets during a show with some kind of costume change, that's really all he was doing - but with a large gap between sets - and practically the same show twice, musically speaking. So it's pretty normal.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:25 pm

I don't think it's the physical length of the show that mattered, I think it was more getting up for a show then coming down from a show then having to get up for another show just a couple hours later. Seems like that had to take a toll.

I don't think it's fair to compare Elvis's show length with younger acts. The 2 times I saw Chuck Berry his show was about an hour. Same with Jerry Lee Lewis. Tom Jones's show was about an hour long the 4 times I've seen him. Sinatra did about an hour the 2 times I've seen him. Also, Elvis's show length was affected by the Colonel's adage of "Always leave them wanting more" so that also hindered him ever doing a 2 hour show.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:43 pm

Most jazz acts would do 2 shows a day during the 1960s and 1970s, and many of them were over 50, not just over 30!

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:02 pm

It was no coincidence that the idea of doing 2 shows a day was dropped after September 6, 1976..Elvis wasn`t fitenough for an AS...sometimes he didn`t even know where he was..

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Bruce is still giving ridiculously long (3-4 hour) concerts and I'm not even GUESSING what age he is. I saw Cliff Richard in 1997 when he was considerably older than Elvis and he gave an extremely energetic 3 and a half hour show.

We have to be realistic here. Elvis was just a guy. It was his job. Most people work all day (or night) for 5 or six days a week with about 4 weeks leave per year. When you look at it that way - singing twice a day for 50 minutes is a bit of all right.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Bruce is still giving ridiculously long (3-4 hour) concerts and I'm not even GUESSING what age he is. I saw Cliff Richard in 1997 when he was considerably older than Elvis and he gave an extremely energetic 3 and a half hour show.

We have to be realistic here. Elvis was just a guy. It was his job. Most people work all day (or night) for 5 or six days a week with about 4 weeks leave per year. When you look at it that way - singing twice a day for 50 minutes is a bit of all right.

You've been told before about such sensible comments. We will have none of it on this board!

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Bruce is still giving ridiculously long (3-4 hour) concerts and I'm not even GUESSING what age he is. I saw Cliff Richard in 1997 when he was considerably older than Elvis and he gave an extremely energetic 3 and a half hour show.

We have to be realistic here. Elvis was just a guy. It was his job. Most people work all day (or night) for 5 or six days a week with about 4 weeks leave per year. When you look at it that way - singing twice a day for 50 minutes is a bit of all right.

Paul McCartney plays 3 hours shows now, and he´s almost 71

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:30 pm

Doing 2 shows a day on tour wasn't nuts.

Fan demand dictated how many shows Elvis did.

Besides the more shows the more money.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:38 pm

It's important to distinguish between the early 70's and the later period. In 70-73 an hour long concert was more or less the average for most acts. Then Springsteen came along and changed the game. But Some of Bruce's songs are rather long and he could kill a half hour with 3 tunes. The Greatful Dead had their 20 minute guitar jams to extend the length of their shows.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:55 am

It really doesn't matter if you're on stage for an hour or an hour and a half. Its the up and down thing. Elvis' energy was high the full length of the show. He gave in one hour what most performers give in two or three hours, it was that intense. Today's artists pace their shows more. I saw Willie Nelson in Amsterdam. The first hour he was ending most phrases an octave down, just to warm up. Elvis asked a lot more from his voice than other performers. Springsteen of course is a phenomenon, although the solo's get long. Maybe some of the people that saw Elvis' shows could comment on this.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:59 am

I am very sure that Sir Cliff nor Sir Mc Cartny play 4,5 weeks in a row without one day off. I am quite sure that for decades there has not been a superstar that has done this. Anybody can do a long energetic show if you have time to recuperate.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:13 am

Wiebe wrote:It really doesn't matter if you're on stage for an hour or an hour and a half. Its the up and down thing. Elvis' energy was high the full length of the show. He gave in one hour what most performers give in two or three hours, it was that intense. Today's artists pace their shows more. I saw Willie Nelson in Amsterdam. The first hour he was ending most phrases an octave down, just to warm up. Elvis asked a lot more from his voice than other performers. Springsteen of course is a phenomenon, although the solo's get long. Maybe some of the people that saw Elvis' shows could comment on this.

Willie Nelson is 79 years old. Even if you saw him 20 years ago, he still would have been 60. As for Elvis giving in an hour what most performers give in two or three, well that may have been the case in 1969, but after that it certainly wasn't. And in the final years, Elvis gave in an hour what most performers give in 5 minutes. Intensity is not a word I would use to describe any Elvis performance after 1972 at the very latest.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:27 am

Wiebe wrote:He gave in one hour what most performers give in two or three hours, it was that intense.

How does one measure this?

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 3:54 am

Every concert I went to in the early seventies, were 45-60 minutes long. Let's give Elvis some due here, two a days especially for the frenetic 69-70 shows were brutal and took a toll.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:36 am

Joe Car wrote:Every concert I went to in the early seventies, were 45-60 minutes long. Let's give Elvis some due here, two a days especially for the frenetic 69-70 shows were brutal and took a toll.

He was 34 and at the peak of health. No doubt 2 hours on stage is much worse than being down a mine for 10 hours when you're 50!

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:55 am

eligain wrote:I don't think it's the physical length of the show that mattered, I think it was more getting up for a show then coming down from a show then having to get up for another show just a couple hours later. Seems like that had to take a toll.

I don't think it's fair to compare Elvis's show length with younger acts. The 2 times I saw Chuck Berry his show was about an hour. Same with Jerry Lee Lewis. Tom Jones's show was about an hour long the 4 times I've seen him. Sinatra did about an hour the 2 times I've seen him. Also, Elvis's show length was affected by the Colonel's adage of "Always leave them wanting more" so that also hindered him ever doing a 2 hour show.

I really wasn't talking about Elvis's age or lack of stamina compared to younger performers, I was talking about his generation and the way of doing things. Most performers from his generation didn't put on 2 hour shows.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:20 am

I saw the Rolling Stones a few years ago and they sang for 2 hours but Mick Jagger wasn't in a good voice that night. So, yes, I think that doing twice a day a show for Elvis was crazy. Too bad he waited until september 6 1976 in Huntsville, Alabama to stop this.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:53 am

It's easy to look back retrospectively and comment on what length of time Elvis should or shouldn't have given to a show, the fact is for the most part the fans flocked to see Elvis in concert knowing what they were getting. Lets be honest, after 1973/74 the reviews for shows were getting progressively worse by the month and still the fans came. They still came in 1976/77 when 50% of the show was given over to the band playing (deleted - see guideline #2) solo's and Elvis barely phoning in a mediocre medley of hits! The length of a show was secondary to the Elvis experience!

To be honest I would settle for 50 minutes of Elvis mumbling through a set just to say I had been to a show and in all probability I would have said the show was awesome and Elvis sang the birds down from the tree's. Elvis is Elvis even when he's terrible.

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:12 pm

Matt Ashton wrote:It's easy to look back retrospectively and comment on what length of time Elvis should or shouldn't have given to a show, the fact is for the most part the fans flocked to see Elvis in concert knowing what they were getting. Lets be honest, after 1973/74 the reviews for shows were getting progressively worse by the month and still the fans came. They still came in 1976/77 when 50% of the show was given over to the band playing (deleted - see guideline #2) solo's and Elvis barely phoning in a mediocre medley of hits! The length of a show was secondary to the Elvis experience!

To be honest I would settle for 50 minutes of Elvis mumbling through a set just to say I had been to a show and in all probability I would have said the show was awesome and Elvis sang the birds down from the tree's. Elvis is Elvis even when he's terrible.

The fans did not give Elvis any challenge anymore.He still would have sold out shows if he would stand there Fooling.Talk about getting depressed!

Re: Elvis doing 2 shows a day on tour was crazy.

Thu Jan 17, 2013 4:41 pm

poormadpeter wrote:

Joe Car wrote:Every concert I went to in the early seventies, were 45-60 minutes long. Let's give Elvis some due here, two a days especially for the frenetic 69-70 shows were brutal and took a toll.

He was 34 and at the peak of health. No doubt 2 hours on stage is much worse than being down a mine for 10 hours when you're 50!

We're not talking about different jobs, just specifically performing on stage.I would think a 2 hour show would be easier to perform then two-one hour shows.